This archive report was first published on 6 October 2019.
Charles Kirimi, a 35-year-old from central Kenya, is one of the many 'poor millionaires' who have cashed in on the property boom in rural Kenya. In 2014, he sold a one-acre plot he inherited in Ndagani village for 3 million Kenyan shillings (about $30,000) and moved his family to Chuka town.
However, most of the money soon disappeared, and Kirimi is unsure where it went. He spent it on lavish lifestyle, including drinking and chewing khat, a leaf that contains a mild stimulant and is popular throughout East Africa.
'They only came into my life to have free khat and beer with my money,' Kirimi said, adding that his wife and children left him to live with her parents.
The property boom in rural Kenya has been driven in part by the establishment of Chuka University in 2004, which created demand for staff and student housing. Hotels and entertainment spots soon followed, according to Godfrey Murithi, a member of the county assembly.
But the boom has also been driven by members of Kenya's growing middle class who cannot afford property in the capital, said Robert Mudida, an economist at the Strathmore Business School in Nairobi.
As the boom picked up, developers began convincing rural farmers to sell their land, often below market prices, said Kunga Ngece, who founded the Centre for Research in Environment Kenya.
'At first the offer looks attractive for a family that has known poverty all its life,' Ngece said. 'But they soon begin to realise money goes as fast as it came, and cannot be compared to growing crops, which can at least keep them fed all year round.'
Some counties are working with the central government's National Land Commission (NLC) to implement new land transfer systems that are more transparent and aim to protect illiterate farmers from being taken advantage of.
